This is my quest to use Woman's Day magazine as a guide to living a better life, month to month, by incorporating as many of the articles, recipes, and advertising into my life as possible. My goal is to grow as a person, discover more about myself and others, and test my limits, boundaries, and abilities.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Grilled Spiced Chicken and Fry-Like Sticks

So here's the thing--when I can't get to my regular butcher for local, organic meat, I shop at Kroger for their Simple Truth line. As far as I can tell the difference between "natural" chicken and "free range" chicken is that free range chickens can eat bugs. This confused me a bit because who cares if chickens eat bugs but then again, if they can eat bugs in on the prairie, who knows what else they're getting into?

Also, despite the fact this recipe calls for an entire chicken I will say no thank you. I tried cutting up a chicken once and I didn't care for it all that much so until someone teaches me the fine art of butchering, I'll stick to my drums in a package or on itunes.

That said, I threw a side dish to compliment this spiced chicken and also if I just eat chicken and salad I'm definitely going to be hungry again in less than an hour. So I added my fry replacement: parsnip sticks:

Parsnips contain more sugar than other root vegetables like their cousin carrot so they can help curb a sweet tooth. They are higher in nutrients than potatoes and I season them with olive oil, salt, and in this case, the same coating I used for the chicken. You can use anything from old bay to cayenne pepper, then broil them until they're crispy like fries.

Any time a recipe calls for iceberg lettuce I think "eww" and then I think "no" so for this recipe I used lamb's lettuce for the salad instead of the nutrient-lacking iceberg lettuce. Mache is also prettier for those of you who like to make googly eyes at your food. I know I do.

I'd like to give a special shout-out to my mother who allowed me to borrow her spices. Coriander is $5-7 a bottle. Also it is essentially cilantro seed which I didn't realize.